The accuracy of clinician predictions of survival in the Prognosis in Palliative care Study II (PiPS2): A prospective observational study.

Background: Prognostic information is important for patients with cancer, their families, and clinicians. In practice, survival predictions are made by clinicians based on their experience, judgement, and intuition. Previous studies have reported that clinicians' survival predictions are often inaccurate.

Prognostic models of survival in patients with advanced incurable cancer: the PiPS2 observational study.

Background: The Prognosis in Palliative care Study (PiPS) prognostic survival models predict survival in patients with incurable cancer. PiPS-A (Prognosis in Palliative care Study - All), which involved clinical observations only, and PiPS-B (Prognosis in Palliative care Study - Blood), which additionally required blood test results, consist of 14- and 56-day models that combine to create survival risk categories: 'days', 'weeks' and 'months+'.

Objectives: The primary objectives were to compare PIPS-B risk categories against agreed multiprofessional estimates of survival and to validate PiPS-A and PiPS-B.

Study recruitment factors in advanced cancer: the Prognosis in Palliative care Study II (PiPS2) - a multicentre, prospective, observational cohort project.

Objectives: The Prognosis in Palliative care Study II (PiPS2) was a large multicentre observational study validating prognostic tools in patients with advanced cancer. Many palliative care studies fail to reach their recruitment target. To inform future studies, PiPS2 rigorously monitored and identified any potential recruitment barriers.

The effect of training intensity on implicit learning rates in schizophrenia.

Cognitive impairments in learning and memory are core symptoms of schizophrenia, associated with reduced self-reported quality of life. The most effective treatment of cognitive impairments is drill and practice cognitive training. Still, to date no study has investigated the effect of varying the frequency of training on cognitive outcomes.

Barriers to recruitment when conducting a commissioned randomised controlled trial of medication versus psychological therapy for generalised anxiety disorder: some lessons learned.

Background: Poor recruitment is the most common reason for premature discontinuation of randomised controlled trials (RCTs). An RCT of medication versus psychological therapy for generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) was discontinued prematurely by the UK National Institute of Health Research funders because of recruitment failure. In order to inform future research studies, this article explores the reasons for poor recruitment and aspects which could have been improved.

Correction to: The prognosis in palliative care study II (PiPS2): study protocol for a multi-centre, prospective, observational, cohort study.

After publication, the authors noticed some minor errors in "Nested qualitative sub-study" section, first paragraph of the section, page 7 of the published article.

The Prognosis in Palliative care Study II (PiPS2): study protocol for a multi-centre, prospective, observational, cohort study.

Background: More accurate methods of prognostication are likely to lead to improvements in the quality of care of patients approaching the ends of their lives. The Prognosis in Palliative care Scales (PiPS) are prognostic models of survival. The scores are calculated using simple clinical data and observations.

Modafinil combined with cognitive training: pharmacological augmentation of cognitive training in schizophrenia.

Several efforts to develop pharmacological treatments with a beneficial effect on cognition in schizophrenia are underway, while cognitive remediation has shown modest effects on cognitive performance. Our goal was to test if pharmacological augmentation of cognitive training would result in enhancement of training-induced learning. We chose modafinil as the pharmacological augmenting agent, as it is known to have beneficial effects on learning and cognition.

Functional neuroanatomy of executive function after neonatal brain injury in adults who were born very preterm.

Individuals who were born very preterm (VPT; <33 gestational weeks) are at risk of experiencing deficits in tasks involving executive function in childhood and beyond. In addition, the type and severity of neonatal brain injury associated with very preterm birth may exert differential effects on executive functioning by altering its neuroanatomical substrates. Here we addressed this question by investigating with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) the haemodynamic response during executive-type processing using a phonological verbal fluency and a working memory task in VPT-born young adults who had experienced differing degrees of neonatal brain injury.

Neural compensation in adulthood following very preterm birth demonstrated during a visual paired associates learning task.

Very preterm birth (VPT; < 33 weeks of gestation) is associated with an increased risk of learning disability, which contributes to more VPT-born children repeating grades and underachieving in school. Learning problems associated with VPT birth may be caused by pathophysiological alterations in neurodevelopment resulting from perinatal brain insult; however, adaptive neuroplastic processes may subsequently occur in the developing preterm brain which ameliorate, to an extent, the potential sequelae of altered neurophysiology. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare neuronal activation in 24 VPT individuals and 22 controls (CT) in young adulthood during a learning task consisting of the encoding and subsequent recognition of repeated visual paired associates.

Neonatal brain injury and neuroanatomy of memory processing following very preterm birth in adulthood: an fMRI study.

Altered functional neuroanatomy of high-order cognitive processing has been described in very preterm individuals (born before 33 weeks of gestation; VPT) compared to controls in childhood and adolescence. However, VPT birth may be accompanied by different types of adverse neonatal events and associated brain injury, the severity of which may have differential effects on brain development and subsequent neurodevelopmental outcome. We conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study to investigate how differing degrees of neonatal brain injury, detected by neonatal ultrasounds, affect the functional neuroanatomy of memory processing in VPT young adults.

Cerebellar growth and behavioural & neuropsychological outcome in preterm adolescents.

Adolescence is a time of social and cognitive development associated with changes in brain structure and function. These developmental changes may show an altered path in individuals born before 33 weeks' gestation (very preterm; VPT). The cerebellum is affected by VPT birth, but no studies have yet assessed the adolescent development of this structure, or whether developmental changes in cerebellar structure are associated with cognitive and behavioural outcome.

Growth of the corpus callosum in adolescents born preterm.

Objective: To examine the growth of the corpus callosum between adolescence and early adulthood in individuals who were born before 33 weeks' gestation (very preterm [VPT]) and its relation to neuropsychological function.

Design: A longitudinal cohort study of VPT individuals born between January 4, 1982, and December 29, 1984, and a term-born comparison group.

Setting: A long-term follow-up study into perinatal predictors of outcome after preterm birth at University College Hospital, London.